The state government on Monday suspended an IPS officer and two other deputy SP rank officers after they were found guilty in an alleged police sub-inspector (SI) recruitment scam.

Acting on the inquiry report of the Police Recruitment Board in Gujarat, the government suspended IPS officer M L Ninama and two other officers for allegedly helping two women candidates in the SI recruitment exam.

“Manoj Ninama, IPS (GJ-2007) Commandant SRPF Group 13, in Rajkot has involved himself by directing to favour two women candidates (one of them trained under him) and by adopting unscrupulous methods to clear them in the physical efficiency test and thus committed irregularities in recruitment examination of PSI/ASI held in Rajkot on February 16, 2015,” an order issued by the state government stated.

“Looking at the gravity of charges, it is not in the public interest to continue Manoj Ninama in the government service. The Government of Gujarat in exercise of powers conferred by clause (a) of sub rule (1) of rule 3 of the All India Service (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969 hereby places Manoj Ninanma under suspension with immediate effect,” the order stated.

In separate orders, the government suspended DSPs A L Chaudhary and R D Desai under the rules of Gujarat Police Manual, for aiding the cheating process.

In A L Chaudhary’s order, the government stated, “…Chaudhary was given responsibility to carry out the recruitment process where he helped two women candidates in the exam. He had pressurised a sub-inspector to overlook the matter who caught them cheating. Moreover, he had used his own commando to drop his son Pratik to the SRP grounds. Instead of remaining present at police headquarters, he was found at SRP grounds supporting his son’s recruitment…”.

Chaudhary has been shunted to Gir-Somnath district headquarters while Desai who has been suspended for giving “wrong statements to inquiry officers to cover up role of Ninama and Chaudhary” will continue his service with Amreli police, however, under suspension.
The state Home Department passed the order of suspension of Ninama and two DSPs while the order of Inspector (Rajkot headquarters) R L Pandor, who was found allegedly involved in inquiry, is still pending.

Two women candidates — Vinku Kunadia and Pooja Khuman — a constable with Amreli police and another a PT teacher, respectively, had appeared for the physical test of the sub-inspectors recruitment session held in Rajkot. ACP Chaudhary’s son was also participating in the same recruitment.

According to the reports, on February 16, the women candidates appeared for the recruitment in Rajkot. During their turn to run in the 1600-metre race which is supposed to be finished in 9.5 minutes, the women allegedly took a short-cut and entered the race from the middle finishing it in 55 seconds.

The cheating was caught in the CCTV cameras and a woman supervisor spotted them. The supervisor had pulled them out of the race and reported the matter to recruitment authorities.